To understand why Li disappeared, you have to understand his role in uncovering and promoting a story that has gripped China for the last few days.

The former journalist was behind a number of postings on the website kdnet.net, going into detail about the deaths of five young runaways who died inside a dumpster after suffocating on fumes from charcoal they burned to stay warm.

The story was soon picked up by China's mainstream press, appearing on state-run news agency Xinhua before being picked up internationally by outlets such as CNN. It became a Weibo trending topic and led Baidu's most searched items, becoming something of a phenomenon "Stories of suffering children are always hard to stomach", Josh Chin of China Real Time notes, "but they tend to hit with particular impact in China, where the one-child policy and a strong belief in the family as the most basic unit of society have combined to imbue the young with an aura of unsurpassed importance."

A number of local officials have been penalized for the deaths of the boys, all members of one family who were aged between 9 and 13. Li Yuanlong's "holiday" appears to be an attempt by local authorities to maintain the fallout from the terrible incident.